FIH Champions Challenge II – Number Three and Four Positions
The second edition of the FIH (International Hockey Federation) Champions Challenge II was held in French city of Lille from July 02 to 10, 2011, where the Irish men lifted the title, while France managed to clinch the silver medal.
The Russian team managed the third position and Scotland finished at the 4th place.
Russia
It was a good show from the Russian team in the eight-nation tournament, where it won three games, while lost the other three. It opened the campaign with an unimpressive note and lost the first match in the hands of France by a single goal, 5-1. They revved
it up and marked a victory against Scotland by two goals, 4-2. After losing a game from Ireland by four goals, 4-0, they thrashed Czech Republic by eight, 9-1 and moved in the way to the medal round. However, they failed to show performance against Ireland
and lost the semi-final match by 9-7. In the play-off match they once again edged past Scotland by two goals, 3-1 and booked the third position.
Amazingly the Russian team scored 22 goals, while conceded the same number of goals in the six appearances. Sergey Kostarev, Dmitry Volkov, Timur Nikolaev and Ilya Larikov were some experienced players from the Russian team. On the other hand, Nikolay Komarov
added five goals, while his team-mates, Pavel Golubev and Aleksandr Platonov notched four each in the six matches. Ravshanzhon Zakirov scored three goals, while Dmitry Azarov, Anton kornilov, Ilya Larikov, Alexey Mamoshkin, Nikolay Yankun and Alexander Zhirkov
accounted for one goal each in the tournament.
It is vital to mention here that the Russians after losing the play-off game in the hands of Japan, secured the 6th position in the first version of the Champions Challenge II held in 2009 in Dublin.
Scotland
Scotland, the team standing at the 23rd position in the world ranks, was not at all impressive in the Champions Challenge II, but still managed to clinch the 4th position out of total eight teams. In the six appearances of the event,
it lost five games, while won only a single fixture. In the first competition, the Scottish side lost to Ireland by a single goal, 3-2 and faced second defeat in the hands of Russia by two goals, 4-2. The Scottish men could only score two goals against the
three of France and lost the third consecutive match of the tournament. In the 4th match, they cranked up their offence, but could only mark a solitary victory of the tournament. It edged past China by a single goal, 2-1. However, they also failed
to take the opposite side down in the last two matches. In the second last game, it lost to France by 5-3, while faced another defeat from Russia in the play-off match by two goals, 3-1.
It conceded only 12 goals, while conceded 19 in the last six games played in the Champions Challenge II. Graham Moodie, Iain Scholefield, Michael Christie and William Marshall were some of the experienced names from Scotland.
Furthermore, Dan Coultas added three goals out of total 12 throughout the tournament. Apart from that, Gavin Byers, Michael Christie, Fergus Dunn and Alan Forsyth scored two goals apiece in the event. William Marshall added only single goal to book the 4th
place for his team.
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